


Siblings

by eerian_sadow



Series: Avalon [19]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: M/M, Sparklings, sparkling seperation, touches of angst, utterly non-graphic birth scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-15
Updated: 2010-11-15
Packaged: 2018-04-02 21:13:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4074073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shatter is trying to adjust to a lot of changes now that Sunstreaker is carrying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Siblings

**Author's Note:**

> Notes 2010: so, yeah. I’ve been working on this for ever. Seriously, for over a year. This fic fought me tooth and nail for every single sentence, but it was a story I wanted to make sure I told. Finally, it hit me tonight that the perfect ending wasn’t what I had initially thought but was another, much more meaningful moment. The whole fic ended up with a touch more depth than I had initially thought it would, but I’m very happy with the final product.
> 
> Notes 2015: this particular bit of Avalon 'verse still holds a special spot in my heart. This is the first time I implied that Emily (Shatter's human best friend) was adopted, though I didn't have all of her family dynamics worked out yet.

The entire time he was carrying Sunstreaker never doubted that their sparkling was a femme, even when Perceptor told him that the medical scanners were unable to detect the unique resonance that a femme’s spark generated. The artist never doubted, and that confidence helped him make the most beautiful protoform Bluestreak had ever seen.

Sunny designed her along classical lines and leaned toward designs that had been popular when Elita-1 and Chromia were sparked, saying that the femmes of Arcee and Gravity’s generation were nice but not what his memory files pulled up when he thought of a beautiful femme. Privately, Blue agreed; he and Prowl had always found Crossfire to be beautiful, but that been because she was Crossfire and not because of her design specs. Her final outward appearance would be up to their sparkling, of course, but the styling would always be dictated by the original protoform. Once the protoform was constructed, Sunstreaker spent hours meticulously painting it in a red, blue and purple color scheme that should have been almost garish. Instead, the artist’s skill gave her an appearance that reminded almost everyone who saw the protoform of sunrise on Earth.

The protoform was tiny, but Bluestreak thought it was perfect. He couldn’t wait to see her optics come online for the first time.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Shatter tried not to be jealous of all the attention the sparkling was receiving before she had even been put in her protoform, but it was hard. She already getting more attention than he was, and she wasn’t even online yet. Logically, he knew that it probably took a lot of preparation to make a proper protoform for her and he knew that Sunstreaker was a perfectionist about appearances, but he missed his family. He missed going out with Sunstreaker to the city art galleries after his lessons were over. He missed target shooting practice with Bluestreak. He missed the research sessions in the science labs, where Perceptor would learn as much about Earth’s aquatic life as he did. He missed coming home to warm hugs and optics that looked at him with love.

Shatter didn’t want to be jealous of the sparkling. But when he was feeling particularly lonely, he wasn’t afraid to admit that he was.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“But you’ll be her big brother!” Bluestreak heard Emily saying firmly. “It can’t be all bad!”

Blue stepped closer to the door of Shatter’s room, wanting to listen without letting the sparkling and the human child know he was there. Shatter often told Emily things he was afraid to say to the adults in his life, simply because she was—comparatively speaking—as young as he was and usually understood how he was feeling.

“But I think they want her more than they want me,” Shatter replied softly. “Even Perceptor cares more about the sparkling than about me now.”

The sniper felt his spark sink. None of them had nearly enough time for the young Seeker right now, but he hadn’t known that Shatter felt so abandoned. There had just been so very much to get finished before the sparkling separated completely from Sunstreaker’s spark and only five Earth months left to do it all in. None of them had meant to leave the older sparkling so on his own, though. He turned his processor to thoughts of how to make it up to the younger mech, while still listening to the two friends talk.

“That’s stupid,” the human said. “If they wanted the new baby more than they wanted you, then they wouldn’t even have you, would they? Blue and Sunny picked you special, right?”

There was a long silence that probably meant Shatter was nodding.

“And they fought to keep you even after that time that Ultra Magnus tried to force them to give custody of you to Emdee after you moved here, right?”

“Yeah,” the young mech replied softly.

“And you still live in their house and drink their energon, right? And Bluestreak feeds your fish when we’re both on field trips, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then stop being a big dummy.” Emily’s words were punctuated by the sound of her shoe hitting one of Shatter’s armor plates. “I got left out a lot when Mom and Dad had Liza, but they didn’t love me any less because of her.”

Blue still felt bad about having ignored Shatter for so long, but Emily would make the younger mech feel better in the short term while he figured out how to make things better for the long term. Feeling a bit better than he had when he began eavesdropping, the sniper stepped away from the door. He would go find Sunstreaker and the two of them would figure something out.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Shatter?”

Sunstreaker had to hide a frown when the Seeker looked up at him with a smile that was too sad to be anything but forced. “What’s up, Sunny?”

Bluestreak had definitely been right about how Shatter was feeling. Sunstreaker stepped into the sparkling’s room and sat down next to him. Tentatively, he put an arm around the younger mech, not sure how Shatter would react. He felt even worse when Shatter leaned into his embrace like it was the most wonderful thing in the world. Sunny pulled the sparkling closer and held him tightly.

“Oh, sweetspark, I’m so sorry. We never meant to leave you out like this.”

The Seeker clung to him more tightly. “I know. I just… It felt like you didn’t want me anymore.”

“We’ll always want you, Shatter.” Sunstreaker rubbed a hand along Shatter’s spinal column soothingly. “We wanted you the day we met you, and we’ve wanted you every day since. Blue and I love you so much.”

“But I’m not yours. It’s not the same.” Even through the distortion of the vocal filter, Shatter’s voice was small and scared.

“Who told you that? We may not have sparked you or carried you, but you are our sparkling.” The yellow mech shifted so that he could look down and meet Shatter’s optics. “Family is more than spark-ties. It’s being loved and cared for and appreciated for who you are. And a whole lot of other things I don’t know how to say right now.”

“You promise?” The young mech was frowning and his optics held more than a little fear.

“I promise,” Sunstreaker told him solemnly. “We’re a family and not even Unicron could take that away.”

“Okay.” The fear was still there and Sunstreaker knew it, but Shatter’s desperate hold loosened into something closer to a real hug. “Sunny?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we still go places like we used to? I miss that.” Shatter leaned his head against Sunstreaker’s chest plates, almost as if he were trying to prepare himself for rejection.

“Sure we can.” The artist bent down and kissed the top of the sparkling’s head. “I’ve missed it too.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Shatter clung tightly to Bluestreak’s midsection as Sunstreaker howled in pain. He had been in that position since the sparkling began her separation two hours before. She was coming early—almost a full month early—and the artist’s spark hadn’t been ready for it.

He was utterly terrified that Sunstreaker was going to die.

“You’re doing fine, Sunstreaker,” Perceptor said softly, looking over the monitors. “I know it hurts, but she’s almost detached. You’re both doing just fine.”

“It doesn’t feel just fine!” The yellow Twin’s intakes were working at a frantic pace, trying to keep his frame from overheating from the strain being put on it. “Gah! Primus! Can’t you give me anything for the pain?”

“I’m afraid not,” the scientist replied gently. “Any sort of pain blockers that we would give you would lower your sparkling’s chance of survival greatly.”

Bluestreak’s arm tightened around Shatter’s shoulders and he squeezed his guardian more tightly in return. “It’s going to be okay,” the sniper whispered, trying to sound reassuring. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Of course it’s going to be okay,” Sunstreaker ground out between clenched dental plates. “I’m not that crazy.”

Perceptor put a comforting hand on Sunstreaker’s shoulder as he continued to watch the monitors. “Just a few more moments. She’s very determined. Open your chest plates so that we can extract her safely, please.”

The artist did as told and the room was flooded with blue-white spark light. If he hadn’t’ been so scared, Shatter might have thought it was beautiful.

Perceptor’s assistant wheeled over the cart holding the sparkling’s frame. Its chest plates were already open, ready to receive the newspark as soon as she was free of her carrier. The assistant handed Perceptor the tool he would use to remove the sparkling from Sunstreaker’s spark chamber and then stepped back out of the way.

Perceptor’s gaze turned away from the monitors and focused on Sunstreaker’s spark chamber. A moment later, the artist screamed again and the scientist swooped in with the removal tool and scooped up something small and brightly glowing. With quick, sure movements, he moved the sparkling into her frame.

Every optic in the room watched with anticipation as the sparkling settled into her new spark casing and began powering up the small frame. Almost a full minute after the sparkling was settled into her frame, her optics powered up. Seconds later, her vents hitched and she wailed with distress. With a smile, Perceptor scooped her up and deposited her in Sunstreaker’s arms.

“Sunstreaker, Bluestreak, congratulations.” Shatter could hear the melancholy in the scientist’s voice, even as joy shone on the red mech’s face. “She is beautiful.”

“That she is.” Sunstreaker had optics only for his creation as the assistant handed him a ration of energon in something that looked like a human’s sippy cup. Shatter tried to remember if he had taken energon that way as a sparkling, but he couldn’t access the files. The sparkling fell silent when Sunstreaker put the open end in her mouth and her base programming turned on her fueling routines. “She’s perfect.”

“Like her carrier,” Bluestreak said, moving closer and bringing Shatter with him.

Shatter nodded in agreement as he looked at the sparkling. She was beautiful. “What’s her name?”

The sparkling turned her gaze away from her carrier at the sound of Shatter’s voice and stared at him in curiosity. The Seeker braced himself for her to start crying again, but nothing happened.

“Look at that,” Blue said with a smile. “I think she likes you already.”

“Maybe.” Carefully, the older sparkling reached out and ran a finger over the back of her hand. She surprised him by turning her hand over and grabbing his finger tightly. In spite of his nervousness, he smiled at her. “But what are you going to call her?”

“We don’t know yet,” Sunstreaker said. “Sometimes it takes a while before enough of a sparkling’s personality comes through to be able to give them a good name. You’ll have to help us think of one when she gets older.”

“I get to help?” Shatter couldn’t keep the astonishment from showing on his face.

“Of course you do," Sunny told him. “That’s how it works with Cybertronians. Sometimes, in the smaller ones anyway, an entire town would help name a new sparkling. It’s a big deal.”

“Wow.” He looked down at his new sister again, with another smile. “Did you hear that? I get to help name you.”

The sparkling continued watching him, hand locked tightly around his finger as she sucked down her first fuel.

“Do you want to hold her?” Sunstreaker asked.

At first Shatter thought he had been talking to Bluestreak, but when no one answered and the sparkling didn’t get moved, he realized the question was directed at him. It seemed too good to be true. “Can I?”

“Of course you can.” Without any other preamble, the artist deposited the sparkling in his arms. Then he carefully adjusted the way the Seeker was holding her. “Keep her like that, so she can fuel properly.”

“Okay.” Shatter was nervous as he held her—this was the first time he had held any new-sparked Cybertronian—and he was afraid he would do something wrong. But she settled into his arms with a contented sound and continued sucking on the energon as that was transferred to his hand too.

He couldn’t help the proud smile that spread across his face. “Hi there, little sister. I’m your big brother, Shatter.”  



End file.
